by Amelia Agrawal
In the labyrinthine streets of Lahore, seated across the table from a gruff and mysterious stranger, Changez, an erstwhile New Yorker, finds himself recounting the tale of his time in America. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid unfolds across cities and continents, valleys and skyscrapers, from the bustling heart of Lahore to the glittering skyline of New York, the melancholic beauty of Valparaiso, and the urban tapestry of Manila. Starting as a young Pakistani student chasing the “American Dream,” Changez’s journey maps not only his geographical movements but his evolving consciousness in a post-9/11 world. In this novel, cities transcend their roles as mere settings to become conduits of memory, emotion, and ideological conflict. Changez’s narrative is guided by these cities, which shape and reflect his internal struggles – each locale embedding itself in his story, influencing his identity amidst both global and personal upheavals.
This paper contends that Changez’s identity is shaped by his engagements with Lahore, New York, Manila, and Valparaiso, each influencing and reflecting the fragmentation and reformation of his selfhood as he navigates the aftermath of 9/11. Utilizing narrative analysis and examining transnational identity and cultural hybridity, this essay will discuss how these cities shape Changez’s identity, not just as mere backdrops but as active participants in the story of a man searching for identity, caught between diverging cultures and shifting allegiances.
The story begins, and in many ways perennially resides, within Lahore. The city is not merely Changez’s birthplace; it represents the foundational bedrock of his identity. To understand Changez’s actions and the difficulties he faces in regard to his identity, it is crucial to understand the roots from which his character grows. “I said I was from Lahore, the second largest city of Pakistan, ancient capital of the Punjab, home to nearly as many people as New York, layered like a sedimentary plain with the accreted history of invaders from the Aryans to the Mongols to the British” (Hamid, 7). In Lahore, Changez’s story is deeply entangled with the city’s history of resilience and ruin. It is here, in these familiar streets, that he begins to recount his ideological odyssey.
After four years at Princeton, Changez gets a job at a prestigious company called Underwood Samson (initials U.S.), and moves to New York City. Initially, New York represents a beacon of opportunity and belonging for Changez, in contrast to his feelings of alienation at Princeton, a mere two-hour train ride away. Unlike the homogeneous, suburban environment of his alma mater, New York’s vibrant multiculturalism immediately resonates with him. “I was, in four and a half years, never an American; I was immediately a New Yorker” (Hamid, 33). He recalls the familiarity of hearing Urdu spoken by taxi-cab drivers and finding a taste of home at the Pak-Punjab Deli, just blocks from his East Village apartment. “That was one of the reasons why for me moving to New York felt – so unexpectedly – like coming home” (Hamid, 33). This initial integration into New York underscored the city’s welcoming, open-minded ethos at that time, providing Changez with a newfound sense of belonging within America. “It was a testament to the open-mindedness and – that overused word – cosmopolitan nature of New York in those days that I felt completely comfortable on the subway in this attire” (Hamid, 48). However, it is not New York on its own, as an American city, that Changez takes a liking to – it is the similarities he connects between New York and Lahore that make him enjoy it so much. This is a crucial distinction: he does not connect with New York for its American-ness, but because he is able to find a piece of his home within the complex tapestry of the city.
Underwood Samson, with its motto “Focus on the Fundamentals,” epitomizes the quintessence of the American Dream that Changez initially aspires to achieve. The firm, representing both opportunity and the ruthlessness of a purely capitalist spirit, becomes the epicentre for Changez’s burgeoning disillusionment with America. At Underwood Samson, success is measured by one’s ability to strip away emotional considerations in favour of maximizing profit. Something, it turns out, Changez is very good at. As Changez ascends the corporate ladder, he is increasingly required to adopt a clinical detachment in his work, evaluating companies not for their human impact but for their financial value. “His sole motivation for going to America is to pursue the American Dream, to climb the social ladder and reclaim some of the grandeur he believes he has lost as his family’s fortunes dwindle. In this sense, he exemplifies the individualism that characterizes Western thought, particularly the notion of the American Dream” (Rukmini). This professional environment delineates the conflict between the idealistic promise of meritocracy and the reality of a corporate America indifferent to individual struggle and cultural heritage. Underwood Samson represents a broader American mindset that Changez grapples with—inviting but imperious, promising yet prejudiced.
At the end of his time at Princeton, Changez meets Erica, with whom he shares a deep connection for the rest of the novel. Changez’s relationship with Erica is pivotal – it is another metaphor for his larger engagement with America (her name literally being (Am)Erica), at a personal level instead of a corporate or economic one. Erica, charming yet haunted by her past and a love she cannot forget, symbolizes an American nostalgic for its preeminence and struggling with its contemporary identity. Erica is in many ways the vision of the perfect American woman: gorgeous, learned, wealthy, and well-connected, at least as described through Changez’s eyes. Yet he cannot fully connect with her while he still retains his own identity.
While the stage of the story is set in Lahore and most of his time is spent in New York, the two biggest turning points of the novel — the 9/11 attacks and his decision to permanently leave America — take place in neither city. Changez’s job at Underwood Samson requires him to travel to Manila, Philippines and Valparaiso, Chile which is symbolically significant as they represent the transnational spaces where Changez’s hybrid identity is most definitively challenged. As is astutely pointed out in Transnational Voices in Contemporary Pakistani Literature: An Exploration of Fragmented Self and Hybrid Identity in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist: “Manila, in the end, functions as a mediator for Changez’s divided identity; it refers to an intermediary step on the civilizational ladder (from Changez’s perspective), and it triangulates Changez within a complicated system of imperial power relations” (Rukmini). The same holds true for his trip to Valparaiso – it is an allegorical choice by Hamid to have Changez physically between the two cities while he is likewise ideologically torn between them.
Manila marks the first of these two turning points for Changez. The trip is in general unsettling for Changez – he acts “more like an American” (Hamid, 65) in an effort to be respected, but at the same time, he realizes that he feels more connection to the Asian locals than to his Western colleagues. “I looked at [my colleague] and thought, you are so foreign. I felt in that moment much closer to the Filipino driver than to him; I felt I was play-acting when in reality I ought to be making my way home, like the people on the street outside” (Hamid, 67). This moment, although he attempts to forget it, highlights Changez’s growing disenchantment with American culture and throws him off-kilter.
However, the true turning point for Changez is the 9/11 attack. “I stared as one – and then the other – of the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center collapsed. And then I smiled” (Hamid, 72). This reaction is not a pro-American one; it is a reaction that comes from someone who is (subconsciously) disillusioned and angry with America. Although Changez’s time in Manila represents the peak of his efforts to embrace an American identity, his response to the collapse of the Twin Towers is still not an American one. His initial detachment shifts dramatically when he remembers that Erica is likely in New York, possibly in danger. His concern for Erica illustrates the personal stakes Changez holds in America, despite his growing disillusionment. This moment is crucial for Changez: his feelings for Erica and, by extension, his life in America, are now linked to his own identity.
The attack on the Twin Towers not only reshapes the cityscape but also significantly altered its socio-political atmosphere, affecting its residents’ views and behaviours toward Muslims. Changez describes the palpable change in the air: “I flew [back] to New York uncomfortable in my own face: I was aware of being under suspicion; I felt guilty […]” (Hamid, 74). The open-mindedness that once made him so comfortable in New York is replaced by suspicion and scrutiny. He is pulled aside at the airport, threatened outside his place of work, and made uncomfortable on the subway. Places he once was able to blend into, he is now ostracized from. “Changez becomes conscious of his marginalization and placelessness in America. The policies and regulations set for immigrants like Changez to follow, such as the ‘fundamentals’ in Underwood Samson, exemplify the extent he needs to sacrifice and acculturate in order to belong to the political community of the Americans” (Tayeb, Ahmed-Sami). The ideological reckoning for Changez intensifies as he observes the American response to the attacks. He is struck by the symbolic weight of the Towers’ fall, which he perceives as a challenge to America’s invincibility: “I was caught up in the symbolism of it all, the fact that someone had so visibly brought America to her knees” (Hamid, 73).
Changez’s cognitive dissonance is further exacerbated by his professional life at Underwood Samson, which epitomizes the capitalist mentality that values productivity and profit above individual well-being. His role in the firm, while initially offering a sense of achievement and integration that he excelled at, gradually becomes a source of ethical conflict as he realizes the dehumanizing aspects of his work. Underwood Samson becomes emblematic of a broader American culture that Changez grows increasingly uncomfortable with, as he witnesses its implications not just economically but also morally. “I wonder now, sir, whether I believed at all in the firmness of the foundations of the new life I was attempting to construct for myself in New York. Certainly I wanted to believe; at least I wanted not to disbelieve with such an intensity that I prevented myself as much as was possible from making the obvious connection between the crumbling of the world around me and the impending destruction of my personal American dream” (Hamid, 93). Changez’s eventual rejection of New York and what it stands for is, in part, a critique of the unfulfilled promises of the American Dream that led him there.
Sent to Chile on another assignment for Underwood Samson, Changez finds himself at a critical juncture in his identity crisis while in Valparaiso. “Valparaiso was itself a distraction: the city was powerfully atmospheric; a sense of melancholy pervaded its boulevards and hillsides” (Hamid, 144). The South American city becomes a backdrop against which he measures the stark differences between the American values he has been pursuing and the deep-seated cultural roots he cannot sever. He meets Juan-Baptista, who works for the company Changez must assess, but he finds he identifies much more with this poetic and introspective man than the profit-driven cynicism of his colleagues. “Of course I was struggling! Of course I felt torn! I had thrown in my lot with the men of Underwood Samson, with the officers of the empire, when all along I was predisposed to feel compassion for those, like Juan-Bautista, whose lives the empire thought nothing of overturning for its own gain” (Hamid, 152). Juan-Bautista shares with Changez the parable of the Janissaries — Christian boys taken by the Ottoman Empire and trained to fight against their own people, a story which compels Changez, as it reflects his own predicament. By drawing parallels between the Janissaries’ loss of identity and his own, Changez begins to see his assimilation into American corporate life as a loss of his intrinsic values and cultural heritage. He quits Underwood Samson, rejects the American ideals he’d been uneasily embracing, and returns to New York to pack his things.
Changez journey finally takes him back to Lahore, and he confronts a city that has not much altered but is now different in his eyes. His experience abroad has impacted his perception of his city of birth, and he is unable to fully acclimatize to it – he cannot renounce the part of his identity that has become American quite as easily as he quit his job and left that country. “But as I acclimatized and my surroundings once again became familiar, it occurred to me that the house had not changed in my absence. I had changed; I was looking about me with the eyes of the foreigner […]” (Hamid, 124). Lahore is now a psychological battleground where Changez wrestles with his dual identities, struggling to reconcile his deep-seated Eastern cultural heritage with his increasingly Westernized viewpoints. “He effectively foregrounds his fractioned, hybrid identity by recognizing that he has embraced an American/Western way of looking at things. In the end, it is his home that allows him to integrate his Westernized worldview with his split identity: he cannot see the place he calls home and loves dearly as simultaneously being lowly and untidy without feeling divided and broken” (Rukmini).
Changez never fully re-adapts to his life in Lahore, at least not the way he tries to convince the American stranger he has. It is the very fact that he sits there, telling his story to the American in an attempt to endear himself, that solidifies that Changez has not entirely left behind that Western way of life. “The entire novel is a narrative of Changez explaining himself, his motives, and his journey to an American. For Changez, America is still the epicentre and he is still on the margins, still an Other to both countries he belongs to” (Khan). Changez never leaves America fully behind, even once he returns to Lahore, and that is crucial to understanding the rest of his story. “Despite Changez’s overview of his new life, as a close reader of the novel tracing the evolution of Changez’s character, it becomes obvious that Changez is still an outsider in society. In Lahore, he is a vagabond professor who builds his career and place in society based on his anti-American views” (Khan).
As Changez’s journey unfolds, it becomes evident that his understanding of “home” is linked to his experiences abroad. The initial depiction of Lahore as a foundational anchor in Changez’s life gradually gives way to a more nuanced perception as he navigates the various cities that appear within the text. In New York, he discovers a multiculturalism that allows him to transcend his outsider status. This transient belonging is shattered by the seismic shifts of 9/11, which not only disrupt the physical landscape of New York but also the social fabric that once embraced him. “Changez’s problems stem from his desire to be recognized as both American and Pakistani. Because assimilation is (unofficially) America’s immigration policy, there is not much space for Changez’s Pakistani culture” (Rukmini). Changez’s realization that his ambitions in America are fundamentally at odds with his cultural and ethical values causes a personal crisis.
Changez’s narrative arc encapsulates a broader exploration of identity and belonging in a world where the traditional dichotomies of East and West are inadequate to describe the complex and nuanced realities of globalized lives. Back in Lahore, Changez is unable to let go of his newly Americanized world view completely. “I remained emotionally entwined with Erica, and I brought something of her with me to Lahore– or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I lost something of myself to her that I was unable to relocate in my city of birth” (Hamid, 172). This sentiment captures the essence of Changez’s internal conflict, reflecting the broader theme of how personal connections and emotional ties transcend geographical and even cultural boundaries, complicating the notion of home. His journey from Lahore to New York and back, set against the backdrop of global upheavals, is a geographic loop and an exploration of belonging. Changez’s experiences challenge the very essence of home as a singular or static place, presenting it instead as a fluid construct shaped by ongoing personal experiences and the larger geopolitical happenings that frame them.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist navigates both the personal and political, weaving a tale that is as much about the inner life of its protagonist as it is about the physical world that shapes him. Through the busy and beautiful streets of Lahore to the towering and then bruised skyline of New York, Changez’s journey is an exploration of the meaning of home and identity in a world fraught with divisions. Changez begins his journey with a firm grasp of what he perceives home to be—a place of origin, Lahore, rich in history and familiarity. Yet, as he navigates through the complexities of assimilation and alienation in the West, his understanding of home undergoes a metamorphosis. The multicultural vibrancy of New York initially presents a mirage of inclusivity, suggesting a potential for a new type of belonging. However, the aftermath of 9/11 dispels this illusion, revealing a societal fracture that relegates him to the periphery of American society. The Lahore Changez eventually returns to is seen through the eyes of a man who has straddled continents and cultures, embodying a hybrid identity that defies the simple categorization of “home”. The narrative he recounts to an American stranger is tinted with a nostalgia for a clarity that no longer exists. It becomes clear that home is an elusive concept – it is not just a city or physical space – it is shaped by memories, relationships, and the constant negotiation of identity in spaces that are at once welcoming and alienating. Perhaps home is not a destination, but a journey in itself.
Sources:
Hamid, M. (2008). The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Anchor Canada.
K., A. A., & Rukimini, S. (2022). Transnational Voices in Contemporary Pakistani Literature: An Exploration of Fragmented Self and Hybrid Identity in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist. OpenEdition Journals.
Khan, S. (2017). Alienated Muslim Identity in the Post-9/11 America: A Transnational Study of The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Taylor & Francis Online.
Tayeb, K., & Ahmed-Sami, A. (2021). Home, Belonging, and the Politics of Belonging in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist. HJUOZ.